Project House: The Reveal

by June on January 25, 2015

So, here it is at last – our final house after our complete renovation and remodelling project. There is still some work outstanding but I’ve kept you waiting long enough, so I’ve decided to go ahead and show you around.

If you haven’t already seen it (or if you haven’t seen it in a while), then you really need to watch the original video to see just how bad the condition of the house was when we first bought it. In total, the renovations took less than a year from the day purchase to the day we moved in and we are absolutely delighted with the final house.

The largest outstanding piece of work is the upstairs bathroom. While the plumbing work is complete we still need to install all of the fixtures and work on the tiling. We hope to have this room completed in the next few months. We also need to install the banisters on the stairs and landing. We have purchased the pieces for this and Arūnas is working on staining them to match the stairs. For safety we will probably get a professional to install them.

A number of small items remain outstanding, such as the extractor fan in the kitchen. Because I’m quite tall I wanted this to be a little higher than standard so I won’t bump my head. We finally got the piping cut to size – now we just need it installed.

Most of the furniture, including all of the kitchen units, is from IKEA. When you’re doing a full house in one go you need to make some compromises and, while we love the look of everything, some items are not as sturdy as we would have liked. We’re happy with it for now, but some items may be replaced in the future.

The house still needs lots of finishing touches, such as pictures on the walls and rugs on the floors. The upstairs bedrooms in particular look a bit bare and need a few more items of furniture to make them cosy.

If you have any questions on our remodelling process or on any of the furniture or fittings, please just ask – I’d be only too delighted to bore you with the details!

Here’s to me and Arūnas and many happy years in our beautiful new home.

Thanks Diana! Unfortunately we had to level the outside underground root cellar because it was flooded and was going to cost a fortune to drain and reinforce. We keep our root veggies in a shed, which is fine for all but the coldest months. In the future we plan to section off a small area of the shed and insulate it so that it works all year round, winter and summer.

Shared. I watched all of the videos. Danny and I live and work at a state park . A few years ago We, as in park staff, Danny and I and contractors (when ABSOLUTELY NEEDED) did the same to our Cracker House. Ours meaning ours to live in while Danny is a Park Ranger.
I enjoyed this. Thank you.

Reblogged this on Sarah's Attic Of Treasures and Our Neck Of The Woods and commented:
This really interested me because our Cracker House was totally remodeled except for the kitchen…..We did a lot there but I wanted the cabinets to stay. I will post these pictures soon.
There are videos of everything here. Love this.

I was so pleased to see a link to your website included with your House Hunter’s episode. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all of the amazing progress made. What a transformation! I love the new layout of the home. All of the bright rooms! Best wishes with your remaining projects and your home!

Amazing transformation! Were you not afraid that some of those walls you wanted to knock down (and did) were load-barring walls? if it’s not a secret how much did you end up spending on these beautiful and detailed renovations? On House Hunters it was said that the house was selling for $30 K. Was all the work was done by you and Arunas (with the help of family)? I think the two of you could go into renovation business..:)

Hi Jurgita. The walls we took down were all wooden – you could have put your foot through them – so we knew they weren’t load bearing. I did all the design work (room size and layout, electrical sockets, light fixtures, kitchen, etc.) Arūnas acted as site foreman and oversaw all the work, but we did hire professionals to do the insulation, plumbing, wiring, roofing, install the kitchen and the new internal walls. Arūnas was the “runner” and assistant on all these jobs to keep costs to a minimum. We sourced all materials ourselves. The renovations cost roughly the same again as the house. Delighted you like it!

Hi, June – I saw your House Hunters episode and loved your kitchen!! The room is so clean looking, I want to do something similar. I wondered if you have any problem where the wall board meets the countertop, for example, if something spills along the countertop and hits the wall board. Great renovation!!

Hi Carrie. We haven’t had a problem with that so far, but we do intend to put a plain white splash back across the west wall, behind the cooker and sink. There’s no splashes behind the cooker so far but there are quite a few behind the sink. The paint is wipeable so small marks come off easily, but there are a few stubborn marks behind the sink. We don’t want to interrupt the “flow” of the room so we will try to make the splash back as seamless as possible. Hope that helps! Thanks for checking out the blog. J.

Yeh, I could watch those videos for the music alone! They’re all Irish artists, although they’re pretty big internationally. The first video features Damien Dempsey, an amazing songwriter from Dublin. This particular song is from an album of traditional Irish songs that he made. The song was written by The Pogues but Damien’s version is so sweet and moving. (“Rainy night in Soho” from “The Rocky Road”.) The “transformation” video features Liam O Maonlai from the Hothouse Flowers. It’s from a fantastic album called “Bringing it all back home”, about the influence of Irish musicians on music in the US. His version of “The Lakes of Ponchartrain” is my favourite of all time. The “reveal” video features The Chieftains, an Irish trad band that have been around all my life. They made a few albums featuring major international artists. This song, “Raglan Road”, is an old trad song, sung by Joan Osborne. (From “Tears of Stone”.) Enjoy the music!

I’m a big fan of House Hunters International I and I saw your episode last night. When I saw you were a food blogger I “looked you up” after the show and here I am! It was a great show and I admire you and your husband so much! It was so fun seeing the before and after video after just watching the show. So many times I wonder how major renovations go and wish they had follow up shows. So this was a real treat. Your home is beautiful and I thank you so much for sharing. Now I’m going to follow your blog and enjoy a taste of life in Lithuania. I am writing from the USA in Illinois.

Hi Becky! Thanks for coming to find us after watching the show. Those videos took a bit of time but I’m so glad I made them – they’re such a nice record of our journey. Hope you enjoy the rest of the blog! June.

Thanks Kim! The geo-thermal heating is great. It’s a bit expensive up front but so green and efficient it’s worth it. I love light in a house – it puts me in a good mood. Loving your photos, by the way!

There were terms I was not familiar with–like wet room and box room and conservatory. My hubby was sitting beside me and he explained that a wet room was where you took off your shoes and coats in the winter–at least that was what his was in Canada.

The outside food storage is not new to me, but we used to call ours a cellar and the entrance was right down on the ground, with maybe a cement dome or sod for a roof. The door had to be pulled up and back to reveal the stair going in. We also used it for a shelter in tornado weather. All this brought back so many memories of my home in Texas, when I was a child.

Hey Beth. Yes, your husband is right about the wet room. We get lots of snow here in winter so we have lots of wet boots. A box room is just a small bedroom, usually with a single (twin) bed. Our door to the outside storage couldn’t face upwards like yours because it would get covered with deep snow in winter. That design is probably best suited to tornados – so there’s nothing to catch the wind. I lived in Texas for a short while when I was younger and remember all the tornado warnings on the TV. We had no shelter and I always wondered where I would go if one hit Austin!

Thanks Julie! Goats are definitely on my wishlist, for milk and for entertainment. We also want chickens for meat. And of course there’s the garden, which is just one big pit at the moment, having been dug up for the heating. I have a plan for lots of fruit trees, a herb garden and maybe a deck. No time for dawdling!

Love, love, love your sunroom. Actually your whole house is very bright and beautiful. You’ve got lots of space. I can see why you fell in love with it (minus that snow, brrrr, lol). Country living, you can’t beat it. Now you just need some horses in that pasture.

Thanks Susan! I would love a horse but I’m not sure Arūnas would be game. I think I might with something smaller and work my way up! I’m talking goats at the moment – nice entry-level animals, I reckon. Plus, lots of tasty milk!

That’s such a shame, Kiki – sorry about that. I have found that I have music problems with some videos on my iPad but not on my laptop, so that might be worth trying. I’ll see if I can post it again without the music. Thanks for reading!

Thanks Andrew. We really are delighted with how it turned out – it was worth all the work. I think high kitchen units might have had their day – the current trend is a more uncluttered look. Can’t wait to see yours when it’s finished!

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Photos – Wild Lithuania

About Me

Hi, I'm June. I live in the Lithuanian countryside with my wonderful husband, Arūnas. I like to grow vegetables and go for long walks with the dog, but mostly I like food - thinking about it, talking about it, travelling in search of it and, of course, eating it. I try to cook everything from scratch using local ingredients. Please have a look around - welcome to My Food Odyssey.

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